Computer for photo editing

[rodgers]

Hi there,

I'm in the market for a new computer in the next few months. I've been looking at the 21.5-inch: 3.06GHz iMac. With a discount I can get this for about £850.

Basically I use a computer for editing photos using Nikon's Capture NX2 and at the moment my laptop is extremely slow for running that program.

I don't know if you can help but I was pointed in the direction of this company by a friend who said you were pretty good. I don't know much about computers and know that the iMac would do this job well but it's a bit pricey.

Anyway the question is can you build something that would be perfect for my needs? For a better price than the iMac? Prefereably I'd like it to be quiet too.

Cheers,

Mark

[rodgers]

Anyone?

[kalniel]

http://3xs.scan.co.uk/ShowSystem.asp?SystemID=1078

http://3xs.scan.co.uk/ShowSystem.asp?SystemID=1071

http://3xs.scan.co.uk/ShowSystem.asp?SystemID=1068

Or head over to the Hexus.hardware section of the forums and ask us to recommend a spec that could be built at SCAN.

[leepen@scan]

Hi rodgers,

Sorry about the delay, I'm usually on at night but I've been kept busy recently!

Here's the system I'd suggest for you;


3XS Core i5 Workstation

Base Specifications
The 3XS Core i5 Workstation is based on the Intel P55 platform, with support for Core i5 & i7 processors with up to 8 GB of high speed DDR3 memory.

Note
This 3XS system is part of our Custom Series range, as such it has the maximum amount of configurable options. If you require any assistance please do not hesitate to contact our professional sales team on 0871 472 4747 or email philipp@scan.co.uk

Base Specifications
Lian Li PC-8NB, Mid Tower Aluminum Case
3XS P55 Workstation
Asus P7P55D LE, Intel P55 Express
550w Corsair VX Series PSU
Acronis True Image Home 2010 - System Back Up Software
Scan 3XS System - 1year Onsite Warranty (Mainland UK)
Scan System Configuration
Scan System Configuration (Details confirmed at checkout stage)

Qty Selected Specifications
1 *No Custom Colour Required*
1 Intel i7 860, 2.80Ghz, 8Mb Cache - Hyperthreading Enabled
1 Akasa AK-CC017 Freedom Tower CPU Cooler 4x Nickel Plated Copper Heatpipes
1 Your choice of Intel CPU professionally overclocked by our 3XS engineers to 3.8Ghz
1 4GB (2x2GB) Corsair XMS3 DDR3, PC3-12800 (1600), CAS 9
1 256MB PNY Quadro FX380 - 2x Dual Link DVI
1 No ATI Graphics Required - NVIDIA QuadroFX Required (Select Above)
2 640 GB Western Digital Caviar Black, 7200 rpm, 32MB Cache
1 *Use On Board RAID*
2 1000GB Western Digital Caviar Black, 7200 rpm, 32MB Cache
1 *Hot Swap Caddies Not Required*
1 Akasa AK-ICR-07S 3.5" Internal Multi Mem. Card Reader Incl. M2, Micro SD & USB port
1 Sony AD-7240S-0B - 24x DVDRW
1 *DVD Writer Not Required*
1 *Wireless Adaptor Not Required*
1 *Sound Proofing Not Required*
1 Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium - Retail (Green) 32 & 64 Bit
1 *No CAD Software Required*
1 *DCC Software Not Required*
1 Microsoft Office 2007 - 60 Day Trial
1 *DVD/Blu Ray Decoding Software Not Required*
1 *No Software Required*
1 *Keyboard Not Required*
1 *No Keyboard / Controller Required*
1 *Monitor Not Required*
1 *Speakers Not Required*
1 Standard 3XS System Warranty - 2 Years (1st Year Onsite / 2nd Year Return to Base)

Price
Net Total £1,052.48
V.A.T £184.18
Total £1,236.67


Got a RAID1 feature on here for the data set and a second 640Gb drive which you could use for cloning the OS - may be overkill and should you wish to remove these options it'll save you a bit of cash also.

Hope this helps

[rodgers]

No problem, thanks for the reply.

That computer would be above my budget at the moment. My budget was around £700-800. But looking at this I may have to increase it.

I don't work with large quantity of photos as it's just a hobby, I would think that 1000gb overall would be enough for me as I'd be backing up every so often onto dvds anyway.

Don't have a clue what RAID1 is lol - can someone explain this to me and how it helps.

Also on the graphics card could someone explain to me the advantages of the one specced above as to the other ones I normally read about (such as the ati 5570).

Could I get away with a cheaper processor? Or is that really important for the kind of work I'll be doing.

Could I get by if I stretched my budget to £900?

How would this system compare to the cheapest iMac?

And finally would this system be fairly quiet?

Sorry for the questions I really am clueless when it comes to this technical kind of stuff. Really appreciate it.

[Jonj1611]

If you are backing up you are probably better getting an external drive, not only is it quicker, its probably cheaper in the long run than DVD's.

From wikipedia :-

RAID 1 mirrors the contents of the disks, making a form of 1:1 ratio realtime mirroring. The contents of each disk in the array are identical to that of every other disk in the array. A RAID 1 array requires a minimum of two drives.

Basically if one drive goes down, your data is safe, you can just replace the faulty drive and the raid will be rebuilt.

You could get away with a slower processor but image editing, you really could do with the speed imo

You may not need the graphics card specced though, you could get away with a different one, the one specced is mainly for pro work stations etc, but the one specced is a good price and would perform everything you needed.

Jon

[jim]

That computer would be above my budget at the moment. My budget was around £700-800. But looking at this I may have to increase it.

Cut the graphics card out, and you'll save a good chunk of money.

RAID 1 is an on fly redundancy system. Drive 1 fails, your computer keeps running - you replace it, and it's as if nothing happened.

I doubt you'll see the benefit of it. Okay, drives can and do fail, but not all that regularly. It's up to you how much you want to risk losing what you haven't backed up, and up to you how much you want to risk having to do a complete reinstall. RAID 1 reduces the likelihood of that happening, but you're still susceptible to chipset failure, double drive failure, fire, theft, deletion, so on so forth. Personally, I reckon you'd be better off with a main drive (size of your choosing) for general use, and then back up regularly onto an external drive (again size of your choosing) perhaps via USB. I'd be tempted to go for USB 3, since it's so much faster than current USB 2 tech - make sure you get a compatible motherboard and a compatible external drive.

If you ask Scan for a quiet PC, they'll recommend the right fans, and set it up accordingly. Not a difficult task, so they can add it as a build option very easily.

I wouldn't skimp out on the processor, that's what your photo editing will require.

Personally, I would go for a fast quad core processor, 4GB RAM, integrated graphics (to keep things quiet and low power), a basic single hard drive, and that's about it. Which doesn't have to cost the earth.

You'll get some good recommendations in the hardware section, just give it a bit of time to see what people come up with within the budget range. I don't think you need to increase the budget, it's a very healthy one and you'll be able to get a cracking PC.

[kalniel]

No problem, thanks for the reply.

That computer would be above my budget at the moment. My budget was around £700-800. But looking at this I may have to increase it.

I don't work with large quantity of photos as it's just a hobby, I would think that 1000gb overall would be enough for me as I'd be backing up every so often onto dvds anyway.

Don't have a clue what RAID1 is lol - can someone explain this to me and how it helps.

Also on the graphics card could someone explain to me the advantages of the one specced above as to the other ones I normally read about (such as the ati 5570).

Could I get away with a cheaper processor? Or is that really important for the kind of work I'll be doing.

Could I get by if I stretched my budget to £900?

How would this system compare to the cheapest iMac?

And finally would this system be fairly quiet?

Sorry for the questions I really am clueless when it comes to this technical kind of stuff. Really appreciate it.

If you could get a new iMac for £850 then it's pretty good value to be honest, the processor is not as fast as any of the options posted in this thread, but it comes with a nice monitor built in and they probably look quite nice on your desk. It also depends on which software you wish to use - Aperture is pretty good for the price but only available with a Mac.

A PC is more flexible and upgradable, but if you're not so technologically minded it might be easier to just go with a one system solution like the Mac.

[rodgers]

Thanks very much guys. Gave me plenty to think about. I've posted over on the hardware section aswell so I'll see what responses I get there.

I like the idea of an external hard drive to back up to instead of dvds, any recommendations for these?

edit:

I'd only just got a new monitor at christmas last year and it's fantastic NEC 23" IPS. Half the reason why I was leaning more towards a pc was so I could still use it. Also I have always used windows so. In regards to future upgrades I've got quite a tech savvy brother who would help me out with that.

Cheers

[Jonj1611]

There are plenty of external drives now, a 1TB drive is quite reasonable and should be ample backup for what you need. I personally use a Maxtor OneTouch but I am sure there are plenty of others people would recommend.

Jon

[jim]

Personally I'd go for something like this: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Newli...-HDD-Enclosure

And then buy my own hard drive. USB3 hasn't quite taken off yet, but I wouldn't want to buy a USB2 product as things stand.

Added bonus: if the enclosure breaks, you just send back the enclosure, and you keep your hard drive (and thus your data). If you've got a combined unit, when it breaks, you have to send the whole lot back, including your data, which I wouldn't want to do personally.